Chica and I drove up to Santa Barbara to join a group on the Vision dive boat. I've never been on that boat, and I've never dived the famous North side of Santa Cruz island, so I was pretty fired up.
We boarded Saturday night. Got settled in and figured we do two or three conventional dives and squeeze in one Monkey Dive.
This boat is huge. Its also gorgeous. The conditions were good on Sunday morning on the way to the island. As I set up the Deathstar, one of my strobes wasn't firing. I changed strobes and cables and found out one of my sync cables was dead. So I'd be shooting all day with only one strobe, as I haven't sprung for a spare cable yet (bad move...)
DIVE ONE - Emerald Gardens and Caves
Before we dropped, 'dette asked the capt'n where the "good area" was for this dive. He looked us over and pointed to the far corner of the cove, stating that around the corner was excellent. We had the scoots so we zoomed over and it was all that! Nudi city. Egg laying navanax, clowns, 'tata's and more. The problem was this: the dive got better and better the deeper we got. If you look at the profile above, you'll see that we were pretty deep (100+) pretty late in the dive.
This dive was one of those truly unforgettable dives. The deeper we got, the clearer it got - and the bigger the Nudi's got. Eventually at the 95 - 100+ foot level, we started seeing Alabaster Nudis (first time I've ever seen them in SoCal) and the clowns got to be about 6+ inches long.
It made me very sad to leave - but we'd racked up significant deco by then and it was time to change the plan to get out of it. Chica whipped out her wetnotes and wrote out a great deco plan, which we executed confidently (you can see the stair stepping at the back of the dive.) We emerged and felt great!
Dive Two - Who Knows Where (Claudette will know...)
This was not a good dive. I mean, it was a dive, but the conditions were snotty, the site was questionable and it just wasn't much fun.
Shallow, ugly, surgy. I found some furry crab moments into the dive and we tried to get some Allstate shots of Claudette and crabby, but with only one strobe and only half the light I needed to shoot slower. It made for soft images all day.
We came across a freshly dead sealion on the bottom. Bat stars all over its face. Kind of creepy. We scooted a bit then called the dive and headed in for lunch.
Dive 3 - who knows where (Chica will know...)
This was all about the Monkey diving. We suited up and dropped in. Again, the viz was really poor. What is the deal with 2008? Are we ever gonna get clean water?
This is my second monkey dive in my new plastic fins. They rock for Monkey diving. Don't believe it when Claudette tells you they stink. She has plastic fin envy and is capable of saying anything at this point.
This was our longest Monkey dive to date - about 46 minutes. The water was warm and the current at all depths made scooting one way no fun, and made scooting the other way a total zoom zoom blast!
We were the last ones back on the boat (big shock there.) An excellent dive on the North Side of Santa Cruz. The Capt'n put us into Painted Cave - a truly remarkable place. Its this huge above-water sea cave that you can drive this huge boat almost entirely into. Apparently it goes back (the small kayak-in part) several hundred feet. Really a neat experience.
I'm so pleased with this boat, the crew and the whole North side of Santa Cruz. I can't wait to go back soon.
Shrekette - great to see you, as always.
College Diver - thanks for the kind invite. We'll take you up on this again next time.
Some single-strobe shots below.
---
Ken
========================================
I don't think I've shot a Sea Lemon in a year. Sea Lemon eggs were all over the place on dive one, but we only saw this one giant.
Another Clown Nudi. I was going to shoot one of the giants at 100+, but they were way too large to get into frame. I'd have to back off too far with the 105mm lens, and with only one strobe I'd have to shoot way too slow. So you get a fuzzy baby clownie instead...
Navanax Spinner - we saw several Navanax on dive one, probably two dozen egg masses and two Nax in the process of spinning their egg masses. They're so funky. Head first into this mass. Really weird.
A couple of Allys for ya. In Seattle they call these Alibaster Nudis. They're known in the books as a White-lined dirona or Dirona albolineata. This smaller one was the first one I've seen in SoCal, and we saw it at about 80-something. By the time we got to 100-ish, we found a group of 4 more, including the giant in the bottom shot.
Monster Ally - this was about a fist-and-a-half. Truly huge by SoCal standards. He and his whole family were hanging out on this elkhorn bryzoan.
Furry Crab - we found this guy at the beginning of dive #2. Claudette tried to Allstate it, but I was unable to get the shot I wanted. These two shots give you the idea of how silly he was.
Furry Crab Part Deux - looking right into the lens. Silly boy.
Tritonia Festiva - this guy was so silly. I spent about 5 minutes shooting him as he sniffed the air with that ridiculous moustache, trying to find someplace to go. Here are two of my faves.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
We boarded Saturday night. Got settled in and figured we do two or three conventional dives and squeeze in one Monkey Dive.
This boat is huge. Its also gorgeous. The conditions were good on Sunday morning on the way to the island. As I set up the Deathstar, one of my strobes wasn't firing. I changed strobes and cables and found out one of my sync cables was dead. So I'd be shooting all day with only one strobe, as I haven't sprung for a spare cable yet (bad move...)
DIVE ONE - Emerald Gardens and Caves
Before we dropped, 'dette asked the capt'n where the "good area" was for this dive. He looked us over and pointed to the far corner of the cove, stating that around the corner was excellent. We had the scoots so we zoomed over and it was all that! Nudi city. Egg laying navanax, clowns, 'tata's and more. The problem was this: the dive got better and better the deeper we got. If you look at the profile above, you'll see that we were pretty deep (100+) pretty late in the dive.
This dive was one of those truly unforgettable dives. The deeper we got, the clearer it got - and the bigger the Nudi's got. Eventually at the 95 - 100+ foot level, we started seeing Alabaster Nudis (first time I've ever seen them in SoCal) and the clowns got to be about 6+ inches long.
It made me very sad to leave - but we'd racked up significant deco by then and it was time to change the plan to get out of it. Chica whipped out her wetnotes and wrote out a great deco plan, which we executed confidently (you can see the stair stepping at the back of the dive.) We emerged and felt great!
Dive Two - Who Knows Where (Claudette will know...)
This was not a good dive. I mean, it was a dive, but the conditions were snotty, the site was questionable and it just wasn't much fun.
Shallow, ugly, surgy. I found some furry crab moments into the dive and we tried to get some Allstate shots of Claudette and crabby, but with only one strobe and only half the light I needed to shoot slower. It made for soft images all day.
We came across a freshly dead sealion on the bottom. Bat stars all over its face. Kind of creepy. We scooted a bit then called the dive and headed in for lunch.
Dive 3 - who knows where (Chica will know...)
This was all about the Monkey diving. We suited up and dropped in. Again, the viz was really poor. What is the deal with 2008? Are we ever gonna get clean water?
This is my second monkey dive in my new plastic fins. They rock for Monkey diving. Don't believe it when Claudette tells you they stink. She has plastic fin envy and is capable of saying anything at this point.
This was our longest Monkey dive to date - about 46 minutes. The water was warm and the current at all depths made scooting one way no fun, and made scooting the other way a total zoom zoom blast!
We were the last ones back on the boat (big shock there.) An excellent dive on the North Side of Santa Cruz. The Capt'n put us into Painted Cave - a truly remarkable place. Its this huge above-water sea cave that you can drive this huge boat almost entirely into. Apparently it goes back (the small kayak-in part) several hundred feet. Really a neat experience.
I'm so pleased with this boat, the crew and the whole North side of Santa Cruz. I can't wait to go back soon.
Shrekette - great to see you, as always.
College Diver - thanks for the kind invite. We'll take you up on this again next time.
Some single-strobe shots below.
---
Ken
========================================
I don't think I've shot a Sea Lemon in a year. Sea Lemon eggs were all over the place on dive one, but we only saw this one giant.
Another Clown Nudi. I was going to shoot one of the giants at 100+, but they were way too large to get into frame. I'd have to back off too far with the 105mm lens, and with only one strobe I'd have to shoot way too slow. So you get a fuzzy baby clownie instead...
Navanax Spinner - we saw several Navanax on dive one, probably two dozen egg masses and two Nax in the process of spinning their egg masses. They're so funky. Head first into this mass. Really weird.
A couple of Allys for ya. In Seattle they call these Alibaster Nudis. They're known in the books as a White-lined dirona or Dirona albolineata. This smaller one was the first one I've seen in SoCal, and we saw it at about 80-something. By the time we got to 100-ish, we found a group of 4 more, including the giant in the bottom shot.
Monster Ally - this was about a fist-and-a-half. Truly huge by SoCal standards. He and his whole family were hanging out on this elkhorn bryzoan.
Furry Crab - we found this guy at the beginning of dive #2. Claudette tried to Allstate it, but I was unable to get the shot I wanted. These two shots give you the idea of how silly he was.
Furry Crab Part Deux - looking right into the lens. Silly boy.
Tritonia Festiva - this guy was so silly. I spent about 5 minutes shooting him as he sniffed the air with that ridiculous moustache, trying to find someplace to go. Here are two of my faves.
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